Starting my journey...Locust Hill Farms in the Piedmont of Northern VA

[John Paul]

Haven’t posted in a while, been busy with Fall work stuff AKA Fall Calving. We finished up all but one food plot since we were waiting for Soil test to come back. 5.1 pH so no Alfalfa going in this Fall. We are getting down 2 tons of lime per acre and will drill a good cover crop mix for the Fall. Had to move some cows by this Plot I hadn’t seen in a while and minus the bare spot in the middle where I ran out of seed it looks awesome!

Have another 20ish acres to seed in Cover crops and another 65ish acres of grass drilling and should be done with drill for the Fall. Been a great drill so far.

 

[John Paul]

Poster Boy was just about to shed out in these photos...

 

[John Paul]

He shed out a few days later...

 

[gut_pile]

My gosh what a buck

 

[John Paul]

After having our worst deer season since I can remember we couldn’t get back to work fast enough. I’ve meet with a few loggers and foresters and have a game plan set for 2022. Starting on a few clear cuts in the next few weeks, some parts will be grubbed after for row crop fields and others are going into bedding thickets. Me and my guys are super pumped to finally get started with these projects.

On another note this guy is the true definition of survivor. He evaded us all season and now he’s getting fat and happy in some cut and standing corn plots. Look at his back leg. And I wondered why he must have laid around all the time.

 

[Native Hunter]

After having our worst deer season since I can remember we couldn’t get back to work fast enough. I’ve meet with a few loggers and foresters and have a game plan set for 2022. Starting on a few clear cuts in the next few weeks, some parts will be grubbed after for row crop fields and others are going into bedding thickets. Me and my guys are super pumped to finally get started with these projects.

On another note this guy is the true definition of survivor. He evaded us all season and now he’s getting fat and happy in some cut and standing corn plots. Look at his back leg. And I wondered why he must have laid around all the time.

I can’t imagine you having a bad season. What do you think were the factors which caused that?

 

[John Paul]

It wasn’t just us the neighbors all around us had similar seasons. Couple of things and just my opinion:

1) Another good action crop year. Not a banner one but much better than anticipated. Usually spreads the deer out and makes them lazy since they don’t have to travel much to eat around the trees they want to. Then it becomes needle in a haystack for us choosing the right tree on 1000s of acres to hunt.

2) Very warm October. We didn’t even hunt but 5 total sits between 4 of us for October it was so hot and miserable.

3) We saw good deer first 5-7 days of November (confirmed by neighbors they had similar sightings) then the warmer weather around the rut and full moon around the peak of rut made them nocturnal. And they didn’t come out of that pattern for much of the rest of season.

Saw plenty of deer; saw a couple bucks I would have killed in early November but I bow hunt so things didn’t work out. These projects we are doing are going to make the deer more able to pattern IMHO. Only time will tell.

 

[John Paul]

Continued…

First time since I have lived in Virginia (moved here in 2008) we didn’t kill a mature buck on the farm.

Lowest harvest total on our farm (killed 35 total deer) since we have been on DMAP (VA’s Deer Management assistance program).

Let’s just blame it on COVID and move on right?

 

[John Paul]

Started on a bedding thicket today for a few hours. Needed the exercise!

 

[Baker]

Started on a bedding thicket today for a few hours. Needed the exercise!

What is that white stuff? Looks like the dust from our ranch. That aint Duvall county!

 

[John Paul]

What is that white stuff? Looks like the dust from our ranch. That aint Duvall county!

Ha! No but my first white Christmas was in Duval a few years back!

 

[John Paul]

I can’t wait to get a skid steer with some implements. This 5 acre bedding thicket is going to take forever by hand. But it’s excercise so not complaining too much.

Added a new top handle saw for doing the smaller stuff. Pretty nifty little saw.

 

[John Paul]

My buddy thought he would speed up the process of cutting down these cedars for this bedding thicket. My back and I didn't disagree with him...

 

[George]

Cedar thickets are a bugger to manipulate by hand. Any word from Poster Boy?

G

 

[cutman]

My buddy thought he would speed up the process of cutting down these cedars for this bedding thicket. My back and I didn't disagree with him...

What is that?

 

[George]

What is that?

JonnDeere feller buncher.

G

 

[John Paul]

JonnDeere feller buncher.

G

Yep. I have a video of it working but couldn't get it to load yesterday on this site.

 

[John Paul]

Cedar thickets are a bugger to manipulate by hand. Any word from Poster Boy?

G

No we had him on camera a few times through late November. I'm fairly certain he made it through the season just would like to find a shed to be completely sure. He did the exact same thing last year as he did this year.

 

[John Paul]

This feller buncher makes quick work of cedars. Leaves a much “cleaner” mess behind. The standing poplars will be harvested by the logger soon. They have a little value so it’s worth his time to come and cut them down!

 

[George]

Curious as to what your logger's market for poplar is?

G